Royal Decree 962/2024, of 24 September (the “Decree”), regulating the generation of electrical power using renewable energy sources located on offshore facilities

The Spanish Official State Gazette (BOE) published, on 25 September 2024, Royal Decree 962/2024 of 24 September. This Royal Decree regulates the competitive tendering process for the licensing regarding the implementation of offshore renewable energy facilities, and introduces certain provisions for the development of innovative offshore facilities and other facilities located in ports of general national interest that do not take part in a competitive process.

For such purposes, the Decree defines ‘offshore renewable facilities’ as any electricity production facilities listed under category b) as defined under Section 2.1 of Royal Decree 413/2014, of 6 June 2014, located in any sea waters.

 

Competitive tendering process

Prior to the preceding application for the relevant administrative and construction authorizations, as referred to under section 53.1 of the Electricity Industry Act, the developer of offshore renewable facilities shall become the successful bidder of the following rights, simultaneously, in a single competitive process:

• Application of a specific economic regime.
• Access capacity reservation at a specific node of the transmission network.
• Priority in the granting of the authorization for the occupation of sea-land public domain.

This process is divided into the following stages: (a) approval of the regulatory terms, (b) public discussions, (c) call for the competitive process, (d) submission and correction of applications, and (e) assessment of applications and resolution of the process.

Approval of the process’ regulatory terms:

The regulatory terms for these competitive tendering processes shall be approved by means of a Ministerial Order, to be published in the Spanish BOE.

Such terms are to cover, inter alia:

1. The power quota to be allocated (either to a single or several projects).
2. Eligible area(s) for the installation of the projects, stating the specific network nodes to connect and access capacity thereof.
3. Technology, features and requirements of the listed projects, such as, design, environmental and socio-economic impact, decommissioning, integrity and proper maintenance of the see-land public domain, and/or contribution to the quality and security of power supply by the facilities.
4. Term of the sea-land public domain concession.
5. Parameters and other elements that form up the economic regime applicable to the projects (deadline for the availability of facilities, minimum and maximum number of equivalent annual operating hours, percentage of market adjustment, and interim control milestones and related penalties).
6. Amount of the security to be provided, and requirements to be met by tenderers as regards, inter alia, legal form, technical solvency and economic and financial solvency.
7. Weighting criteria (both financial and non-financial) and other information necessary for the assessment of the offers submitted.

Public discussion stage

Following approval of the terms, the decree provides for a public discussion stage – aiming at promoting social acceptance of the projects – where the stakeholders affected by the facilities may submit comments or proposals for improvement in relation to the aspects, parameters and criteria approved in the Order containing the terms itself. In turn, promoters interested in developing projects in the designated areas may also submit to the Secretary of State for Energy their comments, motivation and alternative proposals in relation to the comments and proposals made by the affected stakeholders.

Call for the competitive process

After the public discussion stage, the Ministerial Order with the call for a competitive tendering process will be approved and published in the Spanish BOE, including, among others:

• The relevant schedule for the process.
• The information and documents to be included in the application form.
• The reserve price (or maximum price of the bid in EUR/MWh) and, if applicable, the risk price (or minimum price of the bid in EUR/MWh).
• Where appropriate, the modification of any aspects, parameters or criteria as provided for public discussion by the Order approving the tendering terms.

Submission and correction of applications

The application to take part in the competitive tendering process, together with the documents certifying that the required guarantees have been provided, shall be submitted to the Dirección General de Política Energética y Minas (Directorate-General for Energy Policy and Mining), within the term and in the form set forth in the Order calling for the process.

Upon completion of the term provided for the submission of applications, a provisional list of applications accepted and rejected will be published, including the reasons for rejection, and a ten-day term shall be granted for the stakeholders to remedy, where appropriate, any shortcomings, and/or to attach any necessary documents in relation to the rejected applications.

Lastly, a final list containing all applications accepted or rejected, and any interested parties whose applications have been deemed as withdrawn, shall be published.

Assessment of applications and resolution of the process

Successful applications will be assessed by a technical committee. During the assessment stage, a list will be published with the provisional score obtained by each proposal so that interested parties who so wish may submit any allegations they deem appropriate within a ten-day term.

After considering the allegations, the technical committee will submit to the Directorate-General for Energy Policy and Mining, a list with the final score for each of the applications, and will issue a resolution on the competitive tendering process, which shall be published in the BOE, and shall register the successful bidders with the renewable energies economic regime electronic register, under a pre-allocation status. This decision will not put an end to the administrative channel and, consequently, may be subject to appeal to the Secretary of State for Energy.

 

Amendment and transfer of successful proposals

Under exceptional circumstances, and due to unexpected reasons to be duly justified, amendments to certain aspects of the awarded proposal may be authorised, provided that they: (i) would not have led to the award of the process to a different promoter; (ii) do not entail an increase in the awarded price; and (iii) do not imply that the facilities can no longer be considered the same in accordance with the criteria set out in Annex II of Royal Decree 1955/2000, of 1 December.

In addition to the above, the Decree allows for, further to prior authorisation by the Directorate General for Energy Policy and Mining, the rights granted within the competitive process to be transferred to a different party, provided that the new holder meets the requirements contained in the relevant call.

 

Offshore facilities not participating in the competitive process

As provided by law, the following offshore facilities are entitled to obtain the authorisations provided for under Section 53 of the Electricity Industry Act, without being related to any successful bid within a competitive tendering process:

• Innovative offshore renewable facilities located outside areas with high potential for the development of offshore wind power, provided that they are wind facilities with an installed capacity not exceeding 50 MW, or non-wind facilities with an installed capacity not exceeding 20 MW.
• Facilities located in zones I and II of ports of general national interest.